The Hawk and the Raven
by rose of england
Summary: In a world where the soul can be seen, Dean and Sam's show them where their lives are going:  Dean continues to hunt while Sam goes to Jordan College.  But then John disappears...  crossover with His Dark Materials.


This was originally written with the intention of being set in an entirely new world, sort of a cross between the _Supernatural_ one and Lyra's from _His Dark Materials_, though it can be read as just being Lyra's, whichever works.

As usual, don't own either - that'd be down to Phillip Pullman and Eric Kripke, luckily for them.

* * *

Dean was four when he knew what he wanted to do with his life. He didn't quite realise it at the time, of course, but watching his house and his mother go up in flames was enough at that age.

The worst part about that night though wasn't the fire, or the squalling baby wriggling in his arms.

It was watching Mary's dæmon come barrelling back out of the Northern sky, to collapse in the dirt at his feet and let out one plaintive cry before vanishing.

It was the first time he'd even seen anything like that, and with what became of his life, it certainly wasn't the last. He stared at the spot where Roake had disappeared until the Paramedics hauled him off to check him over.

Sam doesn't remember Mary. Sometimes, when he concentrates, he thinks he remembers fire, but that could be down to knowing the manner of hers, and others deaths.

Palladia, when she settles, takes on the form of a raven, and that's supposed to show his preference of academia over hunting, or some such.

Just down to the fact that the Norse god Odin had a raven dæmon.

Perhaps then, he supposes, that's why he and Dean are so different, yet the same – both dæmons being birds, but Helwyn is a hawk, a natural hunter, personifying Dean down to the core. Maybe it's these things that caused Sam to walk out on hunting, try to take on a normal life. His soul was showing him what he was meant to do, and he'd be damned if he wasted his life doing something he was always second best at.

Dean's left hand is covered in scars from where Helwyn perches. Some might ask why he doesn't wear a glove, but that makes her look more like a pet or something than what she is, and besides, what does he care? She's his soul. Nothing she does can hurt him.

Not like he did to her the time they went North with John just after his twelfth birthday, right before she settled, and Dean went behind his father's back and persuaded the witches of his mother's clan to show him how to perform the separation rite. Helwyn disappeared for three days before returning to him, and John laid into him because he thought Dean had gotten lost in the icy wastes or killed by thePanserbjørne.

Dean never told John what he did those three days.

Dean doesn't think Sam knows, but he doesn't have a raven dæmon for nothing. Sometimes when they're out on a hunt, Helwyn will be nowhere to be seen for minutes at a time. Granted, it's dark and there's other things going on, but he knows what his eyes see, and 'Dia backs him up on this. You just _know_ when someone's dæmon isn't around their human, and moments like that would be some of those times.

They never mention this though, not even when Sam rants at John and Dean over their obsessive hunting and takes off to England to go on a scholarship to Jordan College.

Its two years before he hears from his family again, and that arrives in the form of a telegram that gives him some cryptic shit and Dean breaking into his dorm in the middle of the night. He's amazed Dean left the Impala alone, but it turns out John went missing on a journey to Trollesund and Dean was desperate enough for any clue he actually got on the Trans-Atlantic zeppelin.

Sam surprised himself by actually agreeing to take off with Dean to look for John. Right up until 'Dia pecked him on the head.

"What in the hell did you think you were going to do? Let him and Elona stay disappeared?"

Sam didn't know what he'd do without her guidance sometimes.

Arriving in Trollesund didn't exactly throw up many clues other than that John had definitely been there. And making use of his marine training apparently, when he hired equipment and set off towards the Pole.

Stuck at a loose end, Dean swallowed down his reservations, and once inside their rented accommodation, sent Helwyn out to find the Lake Enara witches. Sam stared for a minute or so, but seemed to recover pretty quickly. Still, Dean saw him keep shooting glances out the corner of his eye, a combination of curious and fearful, until he finally asked Dean how he did it.

He took it better than Dean expected, but Palladia fluffed her feathers and glared as angrily as a dæmon could.

Helwyn came back several hours later followed by a snow goose and a whole lot of trouble.

"Dean, you'll never believe this. There's _other_ worlds out there, like this and not, and it's into one of those he's gone, to fight for the Republic of Heaven…"


End file.
